All posts by Erin

Life, Travel, and Public Health

Some more quick thoughts on Vietnam

September 21, 2014 Erin 1 Comment

We are finishing up our week volunteering teaching English in the industrial zone outside of Hanoi with CVTD, and I am thankful for the greater depth of understanding of the Vietnamese way of life and culture that the experience has given me (not to mention all of the delicious food). I hope our students had as much fun as we did. Tomorrow morning we are jumping on a ($30) flight to Hoi An, to spend some time chilling on beaches and exploring the town. Here are some last quick thoughts before heading down to the central coast.

1) It is awesome to be in a place where the late-night street food includes piles of fresh Vietnamese lettuce, herbs, and vegetables (our GI tracks thank us when they have been at least briefly rinsed in potable water). The pork belly isn’t bad either. We did our best to work our way through the Old Town Restaurant Tour provided by our friends at ZINK year and agree with all of their choices.

Walking the streets at night in Hanoi.

Street food in Hanoi.

2) After just a few days in our volunteer house, I developed callouses on my fingers from using chopsticks to stir fry peanuts, vegetables, and meats over the high heat used in Vietnamese cooking.

3) Check out this electrical wiring. The power is incredibly reliable.

4) Urban chickens.

Quick Thoughts

Giving new meaning to “catching the bus” and random acts of kindness.

September 17, 2014 Erin Leave a comment

Today, we had to travel in towards the city to teach our kindergarten and high school – age English classes. Which meant (as we are still too chicken to get with the program and get a motorbike), taking the bus. Interesting thing about the public buses in Vietnam (or at least around Hanoi), they don’t stop. They slow down, and you are expected to run alongside them and jump to get on. Same thing when you are getting off, the bus slows, you jump out and then run a few meters (that’s right, meters, not yards) while you wait for you momentum to slow. It’s basically like Divergent (the audio book we listened to while driving across the country). And, we have survived. Our French roommate informed us that we are now off to a good start in Vietnam.

On the way home, however, we were so proud of our new bus boarding skills that we jumped on the first one we saw, which was, unfortunately, going further into the city. We looked like the confused gringos we were, pointed at a couple of things written on a piece of paper, and then began to actually freak out as the bus got on the big bridge headed into the city. But then, a nice man in the back of the bus saved us by using his English skills and familiarity with the bus schedule to redirect us. They didn’t charge us for that first ride, and the gentleman told us where to get off the bus to change lines heading back out of the city, and another man even jumped (yes, jumped) off with us to ensure that we didn’t mess it up again — gesturing to where we needed to go. Boarding our next bus, we said the name of landmark by our stop and everyone nodded indicating that we were in the right place. They gestured for us to take a seat by them and proceeded to take care of us the whole way — helping us get the right bills to get the fare, and making sure that the bus slowed down so that we could get off at the right stop. Thanks to the English-speaking gentleman on bus 53 headed into Hanoi this evening, and his friend who got off with us, and to the entire group of helpful folks on bus 56A — you all rock, and we are so grateful. We wouldn’t be sitting in our apartment drinking a beer (which you can buy from apartment #206 downstairs for 10,000 dong — 50 cents) right now without you.

Quick Thoughts

On a roof in Vietnam.

September 12, 2014 Erin Leave a comment

Listening to impromptu karaoke. Not bad.

Quick Thoughts

Selfies at the great wall.

Image September 5, 2014 Erin 2 Comments

Quick Thoughts

Seoul Highlights

September 3, 2014 Erin 1 Comment

Some quick pictorial highlights. (Yes, a lot of this is food). (Also see the DMZ post for more on South Korea.)

Korean BBQ our first night in country.

Chicken and Beer.

Downtown temple.

River Walk.

Imperial Palace.

Blue House (where the President lives and works).

Blue House

An electronic image of the President

Dan sitting behind a replica of the President’s desk.

Seoul Tower

The directions to our next stop

Street Food (with lots of kimchi).

Cities and Sites

Osaka, the Kitchen of Japan

September 2, 2014 Erin Leave a comment

Osaka is known as the kitchen of Japan, and so we came ready to eat. Because we cannot afford to do many of the things recommended by the New York Times, we were excited to be able to follow their advice our first night in Osaka. As recommended, our first stop was Beer Belly Tenma, which served beer from Japanese Minoh brewery, including a delightful peach weizen, and where we also sampled a minced-pork local specialty.

Eating french fries with chopsticks at Beer Belly Tenma.

Minced pork wrap.

Then it was on to Dig Beer Bar, just a few blocks up the road, which sported shwag from several Colorado breweries. We thankfully visited on a Japanese beer night, and we tasted several additional good local beers, and enjoyed their specialty pizza. It was a great place with a friendly atmosphere, where we enjoyed conversations with the bar tenders, who spoke amazing English, and some fellow travelers from Canada.

The New York Times tour covered, we spent the rest of our time exploring other restaurants in the city, including Mizuno, home of one of the most highly reviewed okonomiyaki (egg and yam flour pancakes stuffed with other ingredients) in Japan, and frequenting what is now my favorite tempura restaurant in the world, located in the basement of the Osaka subway station.

Mizuno

okonomiyaki

Best tempura shop IN THE WORLD.

MORE PICTURES??

Want more pictures from our time in Japan outside of Tokyo? Dan’s gallery is here, and Erin’s is here.

Cities and Sites

Nara, Japan

September 2, 2014 Erin Leave a comment

Nara was the first permanent capital of Japan, from about 710 to 784. The second-tallest pagoda (intricately crafted wood structures built of wood alone, with a tendency to burn down during Japan’s many famous fires) is located in the city, at a height of 52 meters. However, according to a postcard from Nara, “its solemn beauty compares favorably” with the tallest pagoda, located in Kyoto.

Nara was a terrific stop. It is filled with temples, shrines, world heritage sites, and deer. According to legend, a god is said to have once visited Nara atop a white deer, and since then, the deer have been respected and protected as “divine messengers.” These divine messengers are particularly fond of deer crackers, Shika Senbei, which can be purchased from vendors in town for 150 yen (about $1.50). Hungry deer will stand outside of vendor shops, belling, urging you to buy them some deer crackers. But, you have to hide the crackers on your way out of the shop or you will be quickly overwhelmed with eager deer. Once you start giving out the crackers, the deer get very excited, and can be just a bit intimidating. I turned around to find a male whose horns had been sheared off standing right behind me, and then I ran, from a bunch of divine deer. After feeding a couple of rounds of crackers, Dan and I sat on a picnic bench to eat a snack and I had deer all over me, rubbing their heads on my legs, and chewing on my map and shirt. Quite fun though.